The road to Argentina

We left Chilóe island on the day the weather went south… our voyage also took a detour and we are now headed into Argentina via Osorno to the town of Bariloche, a ski resort town situated inside the National Park Nahual Huapi on the western shore of the 180 km long lake that bears the same name as the park.

The 6 hour ride across the border was picturesque and my face was plastered against the window the entire time. Thick temperate forest much like the Blue Ridge Mountains back home in NC bred incredible fall colours on each tree. As we pressed on deeper into the frontier protected by the Patagonian skyline beautiful granite mountains reminiscent of the High Sierras of California rising above the treeline soon enveloped us in every direction.

As it turns out two californian chicas that we had met and hung out with in Chiloé were headed to Bariloche and arrived a day before us were staying at the hostel called Backpacker 1004, the number signifying the room number of the hostal, which is located on the top (10th) floor of the tallest building in Bariloche. The hostal is quite cool and rather large, occupying what they claim to be the largest flat in town, a space of what seems to be the size of two or three flats in the north end of the building. The west side of the place has a full balcony the length of the flat impressionable panoramic view of the hilly outskirts of town, the gigantic Nahual Huapi Lake below, and off in the distance the Patagonian peaks behind which the sun hides each afternoon around 5:50. Its hard not to write descriptively here because everything in sight is a kodak moment. Fall here is excellent and when winter comes full on the Cerro Catedral mountain opens its doors to tons of argentine skiers aprovecharing the powdery conditions. Tons of treks, bike rides, and adventure sports to do here… so we are off tomorrow to do just that.